The invention described herein relates to methods for mounting laser fusion targets and more particularly to methods for producing laser fusion targets of the type disclosed and claimed in application Ser. No. 485,696.
Laser fusion depends on the use of intense, short-pulse-width laser radiation to produce thermonuclear reaction or "burn" in an appropriate fuel. The laser radiation causes the fuel to literally implode upon itself, thereby producing a density and temperature at which the burn can effectively occur. Ideally, the most efficient burn should be created by a perfectly spherically symmetric implosion of the fuel. This requires the fuel to be present in a spherical form and to be irradiated simultaneously and uniformly along its entire outer periphery or the outer periphery of its spherical container. It is readily apparent that such spherically symmetric irradiation is difficult to achieve; however, the art teaches that it can be approximated through use of a plurality of lasers and appropriate optics, with the approximation becoming better as a larger number of lasers are used. Unfortunately, simultaneous irradiation of the fuel by a large number of laser beams is not readily accomplished, especially in the anticipated environment of a laser fusion reactor.
Application Ser. No. 485,696 teaches that the number of laser beams required to produce the necessary symmetrical implosion can be reduced substantially by use of a so-called "ball-and-disk" laser fusion target in conjunction with a first low energy pulse of laser radiation to form a plasma cloud around the fuel and a second much more energetic pulse of laser radiation to act on the plasma cloud and produce the desired implosion of the fuel.